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Writer’s Block vs. The Rolling Dice

If you’ve ever had Writer’s Block, you know how frustrating it can be. I know there are times where I’m sitting in front of the screen, cursor blinking at me, taunting me, just judging me and my stupid brain. Oh, how I loathe the blinking cursor.

So if that is ever you, might I suggest this fun little game to shake out the cobwebs and even jump start an idea or two. Rory’s Story Cubes are 9 dice that come in an orange bag. On each of the die are different images that, when you roll them together, you get a slightly “rorshachian” experience. Take a look at the picture below…

What would you do with a bumblee bee, a sheep, a key, and a pyramid? Can you find a story inside those images?

Every time I’ve used the story cubes, I feel like I’m getting a “cheat sheet” inside my brain. It just gives a little jolt and a few story snippets start to appear.

What’s more is that I’ve used these at my clinical office and the kids like ‘em as much as I do. Come to think of it, I think these were probably geared toward kids and not writers–but who really cares…when you are hunting for ideas, you’ll take’em where you can find ‘em.

I bought my set at Wal-Mart, but you can get them anywhere. There’s even a really cheap iPad version of the game.

So there you have it. An inside tip on coming up with ideas. Sure you can sit outside and stare at the clouds until something clicks (which I have been known to do) OR you could also have some fun and roll some dice! Who knows, a pretty good picture book idea might just pop out.

Of course, you could also go in an even more random direction and try this.

(uh…my very first random sentence was “The vessel detects the milky waste.”

…What?!?)

Feel free to tell me about your Random Sentences or Story Cube stories below! I might even have a contest or two where we all use the same cubes to see what kind of crazy stuff pops up.